Chauncey Forward Black (November 24, 1839 – December 2, 1904) was the third

lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania The lieutenant governor is a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lieutenant governor is elected for a four-year term in the same year as the governor of Pennsylvania, governor. Each party picks a candidate for lieutena ...

from 1883 to 1887. He was an unsuccessful candidate for

Governor of Pennsylvania The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

in 1886.

Biography

Born in

Glades, Pennsylvania Glades is an unincorporated community in York County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, No ...

on November 24, 1839, he was the son of justice for the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Judiciary of Pennsylvania, Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as ...

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

and

U.S. Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Jeremiah S. Black Jeremiah Sullivan Black (January 10, 1810 – August 19, 1883) was an American statesman and lawyer. He served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1851–1857) and as the Court's Chief Justice (1851–1854). He also served in the ...

and Mary (Forward) Black, and the grandson of Representative Henry Black and Mary (Sullivan) Black. His maternal grandfather was Representative

Chauncey Forward Chauncey Forward (February 4, 1793 – October 19, 1839) was an American politician who served as a Jacksonian member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Early life and education Forward was born in Old Granby, Connecticut, ...

. He married Mary Clarke Dawson and they had four children. Black was educated at

Hiram College Hiram College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Hiram, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 as the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute by Amos Sutton Hayden and other members of the Disciples of Christ Church. The college is nonse ...

, where he met and developed a close personal friendship with future president

James Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until Assassination of James A. Garfield, his death in September that year after being shot two months ea ...

. He later attended

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States. The college traces its origin to three Presbyterian m ...

. Black entered the field of journalism, where he wrote primarily for ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...

.'' Black was also an author best known for

ghostwriting A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literature, literary or journalism, journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and pol ...

a biography of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

for his bodyguard

Ward Hill Lamon Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 – May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and self-appointed bodyguard of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously absent the night Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, having be ...

titled ''The Life of Abraham Lincoln; from his Birth to his Inauguration as President'' published in 1872. Because of his reformist zeal, Black was chosen to run on the ticket of

Robert E. Pattison Robert Emory Pattison (December 8, 1850August 1, 1904) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 19th governor of Pennsylvania from 1883 to 1887 and 1891 to 1895. Pattison was the only Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania betwee ...

in 1882. He served as

Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania The lieutenant governor is a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lieutenant governor is elected for a four-year term in the same year as the governor of Pennsylvania, governor. Each party picks a candidate for lieutena ...

from 1883 to 1887 and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1886. Chauncey Forward Black died in

York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...

, on December 2, 1904, at the age of 65. He was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery,

References

External links

The Political Graveyard
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Chauncey Forward 1839 births 1904 deaths Lieutenant governors of Pennsylvania American biographers American male biographers Writers from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Democrats Biographers of Abraham Lincoln